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Provenance evolution of the northern Weihe Basin as an indicator of environmental changes during the Quaternary

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 April 2019

XY Zhang Open the ORCID record for XY Zhang [Opens in a new window] ,
MY He Open the ORCID record for MY He [Opens in a new window] ,
B Wang ,
PD Clift Open the ORCID record for PD Clift [Opens in a new window] ,
DS Rits ,
Y Zheng  and
HB Zheng
XY Zhang
Affiliation:
School of Geography Science, Nanjing Normal University, 1 Wenyuan Road, Nanjing 210046, China
MY He*
Affiliation:
School of Geography Science, Nanjing Normal University, 1 Wenyuan Road, Nanjing 210046, China Jiangsu Center for Collaborative Innovation in Geographical Information Resource Development and Application, Nanjing, China
B Wang
Affiliation:
School of Geography and Tourism Sciences, Shaanxi Normal University, Xian, China
PD Clift
Affiliation:
Department of Geology and Geophysics, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA, USA
DS Rits
Affiliation:
School of Geography Science, Nanjing Normal University, 1 Wenyuan Road, Nanjing 210046, China Faculty of Earth and Life Sciences, VU University Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Y Zheng
Affiliation:
Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
HB Zheng
Affiliation:
Research Center for Earth System Science, Yunnan University, Kunming, China CAS Center for Excellence in Tibetan Plateau Earth Sciences, Beijing, China
*
*Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

The Weihe Basin is an intracontinental rift basin in central China that provides an ideal location for studying the interactions between regional tectonics and monsoonal climate change. In this paper, we present detrital zircon U–Pb ages from sediments from Core LYH drilled in the northern margin of the basin. We use these to illuminate changing sediment transport processes, provenance and palaeo-environments during the Quaternary. The sediments are dominated by zircon age groups of 100–400 Ma and 400–550 Ma, and three secondary age peaks at 700–1100 Ma, 1700–2100 Ma and 2400–2600 Ma. Multidimensional scaling plots support the conclusion that the Central Loess Plateau and the Luo River are the dominant sources of sediments to the core site. Before c. 1.06 Ma, the Qinling Mountains and the Wei River, as well as the Yellow River, had minor influence on the sedimentation at the core site. These results are consistent with the existence of a palaeolake prior to 1.06 Ma, which allowed sediments supplied to the south and east edge of the basin to be reworked to the northern side of the Weihe Basin. Subsequently, the Luo River has provided a steady source of sediments to the northern Weihe Basin.

Keywords

Weihe BasinCore LYHdetrital zircon datingprovenance study
Type
Original Article
Information
Geological Magazine , Volume 156 , Issue 11 , November 2019 , pp. 1915 - 1923
Copyright
© Cambridge University Press 2019 

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